Timeline of red flags leading up to Florida school shooting

by Kristine Frazao

Nikolas Cruz appears in court for a status hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Cruz is charged with killing 17 people and wounding many others in Wednesday's attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which he once attended. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting, had never been arrested. But it turns out he had a long pattern of disturbing behavior.

These warning signs include 39 visits to his home by police and a fight on Sept. 20, 2016 that got him suspended from school.

On Sept. 28, 2016, Florida’s Department of Children and Family Services visited his home and later released a report in which authorities called Cruz “a vulnerable adult due to mental illness...with depression... who planned to buy a gun.”

Teachers at the school were reportedly warned in an email not to allow him on campus with a backpack, flagging him as a threat.

On Jan. 19, 2017 Cruz was suspended once again for an alleged assault before he was expelled in February. Three days later, he purchased an AR-15, one of at least 10 guns he reportedly had access to.

Then on Sept. 24, 2017, the FBI received a tip from video blogger "Ben the Bondsman" about a disturbing comment from user Nikolas Cruz.

“This comment said I’m going to be a professional school shooter and I knew I couldn’t just ignore that. I screen-shotted the comment and sent it to the appropriate authorities," said Ben Bennight, known as "Ben the Bondsman" on YouTube.

The most recent red flag was a tip to the FBI on Jan. 5 which the agency says detailed “Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” admitting it should have been assessed as a potential threat to life and forwarded to the FBI Miami field office. It was not.

A little over a month later those warnings became reality with 17 people killed.